One likes to contribute to a wine community in some way, but if you've stopped writing tasting notes, that's not always so easy. Thor Iverson suggested awhile back that it might be interesting to trace the evolution of a wine lover through his wine diary. Since I've always loved reading my own stuff, I thought I'd try the experiment.

A few notes:

1. I got a new admin job in May 1995, and our legal division almost immediately converted from Word Perfect to Word. The Wine Diary was my practice ground for learning Word for many months until writing wine notes became a habit.

2. The company doctor recommended trying red wine at meals in order to reduce high cholestrol counts -- over 800 one time. Genetic, but troubling. Doctor's view have informed much of my wine experiences.

"I just drink the stuff -- red, white, some bubbles. Mostly with dinner.

"What's to talk about?"

Turns out to be a classic hedonist question to a scientist. One plucky lady. And she didn't write exactly what she meant. But more about all that later. For now, let's tune in on Bob Ross ten and more years ago on the start of an interesting Wine Safari:

[b]Wine Diary starting in May 1995. [/b]

[i]Data was lost in a Labor Day computer crash in 1996; most of the diary is complete from May 1995 through March 5, 1996, and then again after September 3, 1996. Some data exists from the Dark Ages during 1996. Wine acquisitions are sometimes noted in general terms, but are stored specifically in a separate file to simplify counting types of wines, etc. using the replace feature of Word. Notes are quite erratic after January 2002, when I learned about high cholesterol and the possible adverse effect of alcohol on Lipitor.

This file contains all of my existing tasting notes; some TNs are copied to files on regions or wineries or on various topics. This file does not contain all acquisition notes or events; they are generally in the separate Wine Acquisition file. Usually a description of the wine originally contained in the acquisition entry is moved to the first occasion on which I drank the wine.

Notes about wines are collected at the first entry for that wine, either in the Purchased or Gift note, or when first consumed; the Purchased/Gift entry is then usually moved to the first TN for the wine. Acquisition notes are maintained in the Wine Purchases file and in the Consolidated Wine Inventory Excel file.

3/1/95 Event: Sometime around this date, I decided to try to reduce my high cholesterol count by drinking red wine on a regular basis. At first, I drank almost a bottle each day I had wine, which turned out to be too much. My notes until the end of May, 1995 are very sporadic.[/i][/i]